Neato Botvac 80 (Scratch & Dent)

[jemarent]

My xv21 has been great. My button for the bin stopped working but I just duck tapped it down. There is a recertified one on Newegg for 250 no shipping or tax so woot isn’t the best deal around.

[tc1uscg]

@imasonaz

I had a Neato XV-21 from woot and after my experience I would not at all suggest anyone purchase one of these. They are neat and novelty products, but are not made to last. My XV-21 lasted just about 5 months before needing new batteries, and this is with maybe one weekly use. The new batteries didn’t seem to last very well either, and after about 2 months something with the control board screwed up and the bot wouldn’t run at all, just weird stuff on the screen. Tried replacing the screen controller, but after dropping $100+ on replacement parts it is not worth it.

All of this is without even touching on how often the bot gets stuck and doesn’t complete a cleaning cycle. It is supposed to return to the base to charge if it gets low during a cleaning, but it is more likely to get stuck on some little thing on the floor and never complete a cycle. If I have a robot cleaning up a few times a week, I don’t want to have to clean up before it can clean. It might work well for a single room or even a small space, but if you have even something small like a dog toy or blanket on the ground it will get stuck. Just save yourself the headache.

Like someone said, Mixed reviews. I have two. One is the 21 and one is the 11. The 11 is 5 years old, replaced battery twice. Still working. Same for the 21 but it’s 3 years old. I blow it off with a airhose every once in a while. On my 2nd set of batteries. I have over 1000sq ft of hard wood flooring that I let it roam and every once in a while, I remove the mag strips and let it do another 500sq ft. I’ve flashed/updated it’s software once just to do it.

On a head to head compair with the Romba, this thing wins. It navigates the house with ease and my tale tale sign of replacing the battery is when it makes 3 trips to the charger during a cleaning. 1 for the first 6 or so months, 2 after that. The one in the basement, the 11, does all carpet and does about 900sq ft on 2 charges. Guess the carpet is harder to drive through LOL. I have a scooba. Last version they came out with. It sucks. Not for it’s mechanics but for it’s over all operation. And not that it matters, we got the Neato’s because we had 3 cats. Now just one and this thing keeps the wife (and me) from having to drag out the hose to vac during the week. Ours cleans 3 times a week and we empty the dirt tank ever other cleaning.

[tc1uscg]

@4ghidi4

Do not buy. Not reconditioned, just wiped down mine broke after six monrhs. All interior parts worm out. $35. to ship, $39. to evaluate, $159 to replace worn parts. Square trade argued over warrantee, and only returned what I paid, not money check about repair. I was out $74. with no vac. Buy a i robot. Much better deal. Square trade no longer will warranted as they break all the time. The code claims it ran over water. Mine was no where near water. Then it turned out that it was internally worn out. Do not buy. The company is very unfriendly and sells a shoddy product.

DO NOT buy a IROBOT. They are just as bad and the Scooba is the WORST. IT goes crazy when washing the floor, SLAMS into every thing (it has marred more furniture then a house full of preschoolers testing Tonka trucks) and the water dries before it can go back and suck it up. I’ve heard from friends the vac is no better

[terryharris]

That price for a,scratch and dent is a little much ain’t it.

[bbqpope]

I bought a xv-21 not too long ago from woot. It’s temperamental to say the least. It works great when it feels like it, some days it will plug along without issue for 1 - 1.5 hours. Some days it throws errors after 20 minutes. New batteries helped (amazon has non OEM alternatives - YMMV) and there are replacement parts out there. Do I love it… love is a strong word. If you treat it as if it has a bit of an attitude, the quirks become mildly endearing. I probably won’t buy another until they mature a bit. It does a great job cleaning up dog fur, dirt and crumbs when it feels like it.

[1wally1]

Been there, done that…and will never go back for more.
Neato used to be the best…used to be.
Just try customer service today !
You will need therapy after trying to deal with ‘them’.
I could write volumes…just heed the warning…Stay away.

[iitywygms]

Mine has been going strong for over 3 years. I run it twice a week and it does 2 rooms with carpet and two with hard wood floors. Never misses a beat. Keep the floor picked up. Clean it once in a while. I did change batteries a year ago. Guess I am lucky?

[tc1uscg]

@1wally1

Been there, done that…and will never go back for more.
Neato used to be the best…used to be.
Just try customer service today !
You will need therapy after trying to deal with ‘them’.
I could write volumes…just heed the warning…Stay away.

Sprint, HP, Comcast. They all have crappy customer service. I can’t even walk into a Sprint store without taking a couple of aspirin first LOL. Just saying, We have all been there, done that with someone. So, ether the product sucks or the customer service. Which is it?

[snackpants]

As this feed shows, the Neato product line is EXTREMELY mixed. I have XV-20 and XV-21… my XV-20 has worked like a beast, no problems for nearly 5 years. Handles my wife’s hair fine, just need to clean the brush monthly.

My XV-21 on the other hand has been a real pain in the butt. Battery life sucks, never likes the replacement batteries I put in it, gets caught on everything.

I keep waiting for the Wi-Fi connected ones to show up here… I think IFTTT integration is something i need next.

[blipper67]

@stevematlbch

Do yourself a favor and pass. I just bought an 800 series Roomba, my prior one being a 500 series from 2009 (still runs fine), these things have improved by leaps and bounds, this is my guy now. The 7 year old Roomba works better right now than my Neato ever did, even the best one of the 4.

Yep, I love my Roomba 880 too. Nothing like the cleaning power using 2 dirt sensors to go over a dirty spot until spotless, HEPA, LONG battery life, sensor so it slows down to a crawl as it nears furniture and total reliability. Roomba Co. defines engineering excellence with improvements in every new release.

[jkmahan]

Buying used robots from Jawas is iffy. You might end up with one that has a bad motivator. The refurbished unit I bought (not from woot) had a lot more than a bad motivator.

[arp734]

@msw141

Can it play Super Mario World?

Yes, but with the resolution of Nintendo VR. So skip.

[dham2]

@shuree

Mine lost functionality on the screen. It lights up but no words show on display so I don’t know what the error is and can’t press buttons to correct. I’ve pulled battery to reset to no avail. I want this to work-- so disappointing.

Mine did that (see preceding post). Who cares? Just reset the bot and then press the power button and let 'r go!

[dham2]

@stevematlbch

Years ago I had an NV11 model. Actually, 4 of them, since 3 times I got “refurb’ed” warranty replacements. The second one worked great for about 6 months when the drive belt wore off many of the little ribs. Guess what, drive belt is not replaceable, they do not even sell the part. Third one was DOA, took a month and about 20 email exchanges for Neato to understand DOA. 4th was like the first, crazy navigation issues like pulling up to a wall and demanding “clear my path”. Why does it not turn right or left? Does it seriously expect me to tear down walls? Are they programmed this way? And sometimes it would stop and demand “clear my path” when there was nothing within 5 ft of it. When I complained that my 4th unit was constantly getting errors for no reason, Neat basically said no more, pound sand. Do yourself a favor and pass. I just bought an 800 series Roomba, my prior one being a 500 series from 2009 (still runs fine), these things have improved by leaps and bounds, this is my guy now. The 7 year old Roomba works better right now than my Neato ever did, even the best one of the 4.

“Clear My Path” can just mean that the sensors are dusty. Clean the sensors, side and bottom, and blow out the rotating laser and sensor and I’d bet it will work!

[shadetreescouser]

So…are they scratched and dented because they were unable to stop in time? …I had to ask…just sayin…

[Yazzer7]

@msw141

Can it play Super Mario World?

Yes, but it’s not very good. Never can get past world 3.

[shadetreescouser]

So…are they scratched and dented because they were unable to stop in time? …I had to ask…just sayin…

[zhinka]

VERY delicate!
My dog broke it with his tail, he was lying on the floor and wagging (he is lazy lol) his tail hit this and cracked the housing.
Warranty does not cover this type of damage.

[radi0j0hn]

@tc1uscg

Sprint, HP, Comcast. They all have crappy customer service. I can’t even walk into a Sprint store without taking a couple of aspirin first LOL. Just saying, We have all been there, done that with someone. So, ether the product sucks or the customer service. Which is it?

Both?

[radi0j0hn]

Home cleaning robots are in the Commodore 64 stage of development. I’ll wait until they are at least in the Windows 3.1 stage of development.